Your Custom-Fit Prosthetic Is Ready

Engineers can replicate missing body parts for amputees, but re-creating the abilities of lost limbs is a more complex feat. Advances in engineering are making prostheses more functional and giving users richer lives.

Reclaiming Careers

Reclaiming Careers

For carpenters who've lost fingers, hand prostheses are too clumsy to allow them to keep working. Biomedical engineer Michael Morley, founder of ProSolutions, developed a prosthesis that restores the ability to swing a hammer, turn a screwdriver, and pull a handsaw. The best part? It costs only $20.

"Tasting" Sight

"Tasting" Sight

Wicab's BrainPort gives sight to the blind—using their tongues. A pair of sunglasses converts digital images into electronic signals that are delivered via wire to a tongue strip. In lab tests, users with training could navigate hallways and distinguish between letters by the strength and pattern of the pulses "painted" on their tongues.